


Three Crap Shooting Pallbearers

by AvaCelt



Series: Gothic Horror Prompt Fills - 2020 [6]
Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Inspired by A Dream Within a Dream, Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, Pre-Relationship, Rape Aftermath, Rape Recovery, Rape/Non-con Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:40:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26686051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvaCelt/pseuds/AvaCelt
Summary: Grey doesn't expect to see her light in her new home, but there he is, bloodied and bruised, and as beautiful as the first night she met him. [relationship study of Grey and Gauche's reunion after Gauche joins the Black Bulls, pre-relationship, canon-compliant]
Relationships: Gauche Adlai/Grey
Series: Gothic Horror Prompt Fills - 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1900357
Comments: 10
Kudos: 59
Collections: IAmStoryteller's Best of Black Clover Fic Rec





	Three Crap Shooting Pallbearers

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a play on lyrics from _St. James Infirmary Blues_.

His skin is paler than she remembers. Grey thinks of powdered milk and inwardly gags. Her sisters had quite enjoyed powdered milk, but she has a feeling her light, her savior isn't a fan. He seems more like the curd type.

“He's eighteen and already an ex-con,” her captain guffaws before tossing her light in front of her and Vanessa's feet. Grey freezes. It's been three years since she's last seen him, so it would mean that Grey had been saved by a teenager. It brings bile to her throat, bile she keeps down, because she'd been so pathetic, so _weak_ that a mere teenager had, had to save her from being raped and killed when it should have been the other way around.

She peers down at the man on the floor. His skin is pale, but his bones are thinner. Grey remembers the night clearly, remembers limbs that had been as lithe as strands of wheatgrass on a midsummer morning. There had been an unearthly charm to his demeanor, but it's different now. He's pale, and thin, and bruised up in a way she knows her captain would never unleash upon an opponent because Yami Sukehiro isn't a monster.

More than that, where is the little girl? Surely, her light would never leave that poor child to fend for herself?

Her light groans and manages to get to his knees. His disheveled state exposes dark circles underneath muddled eyes. His lip is bleeding, and there's a cut across his neck that looks like someone took a jagged knife across the skin. Grey spies bite marks and scratches barely covered by the tattered prison garb, and his feet are blistered and bare.

It takes Grey a few seconds to put it together, but when she does, her glowing white eyes get hotter. Grey doesn't understand this feeling. It's different from grief and shame, and it claws at her stomach in a way she's never experienced before. The feeling wants her to use her towering form to crush the thing that hurt her light, the one that did the unspeakable. Had her captain saved him? Did she owe Yami Sukehiro ten lifetimes now, for saving her light when she was too much of a coward to make a move herself?

“Shit,” Vanessa grunts, suddenly alert. The persistent blush from the night's revelry is gone, replaced by a grim countenance. Grey can sense the unease roll off of Vanessa, and if Vanessa's scared, then that means it's a lot worse than it looks.

The feeling bubbles inside Grey again, but she's weak. How is she going to hold and protect the creature kneeling at her feet? How are her meaty hands and giant frame supposed to take him into the baths and help clean him? How can her large hands put Charmy's food in his mouth and hold his hand while he sleeps? Desire bursts in her chest. She wants to keep watch over him, wants to be there while he heals, because he's her light, the one who saved her, the reason why she's made it this far. He means everything to her, and he doesn't even know.

“I'm about to head to the capital with taximan to fill out his release papers,” Captain Yami barks, grabbing Finral by the cuff and dragging him out of the den.

Before he exits through the hole he's created in the wall, he turns to look at her towering figure. There's a look in his eye, as if he can sense that she wants to help but can't make herself move, because she's a coward, a waste of space, something that no one had the sense to mercy kill before it grew sentient.

“Yo!” Yami bellows, and Grey snaps to attention. She's out of her reverie just like that, back in the real world, back in the world where Vanessa's trying to get closer to her light so that she can check his pulse while he keeps backing away with every gesture.

Grey bites her cheek. Captain Yami doesn't look at her like she's trash, doesn't even care that she's just a lumbering presence half the time. Captain Yami is also her savior, one of her first friends in this horrific world, and she can't fail him, not like she's failed herself.

This time Grey focuses, pays attention to the cues instead of devolving into her never-ending self-hatred.

“I already called for a medic, so someone should be here soon.” Yami's voice is a lot softer now, and even Finral stops whining, because this is serious. They all look down at the kneeling young man, the proposed ex-convict, her light who is swaying on his knees, ready to pass out.

“In the meantime, you morons get him cleaned up,” Yami finishes, and orders are orders, and _finally,_ Grey moves. She moves her big, hulking body to pick up the man who barely has anything left in his eyes, but the second Grey grabs his arm, it's as if something snaps inside of him, and he fights _back_ , tries to push her away as if _she's_ the enemy.

She doesn't move an inch. She can't, she's a giant, she _chose_ to be immovable, so her light ends up hurting _himself_ in the process, and falls flat on his face, passing out finally. Vanessa sighs in relief and instructs Grey to pick him up, and so she does. She picks up his frail body and holds it close. She's a hulking giant in this world, a silent sentinel. She's not the mistreated maid living off scraps anymore – she's a Black Bull.

And so is her light, her Gauche.

“BSHOOOOOOOOOO,” she enunciates, her way of communicating in this body.

Vanessa nods sharply and leads the way to the baths. She calls for Charmy's sheep since Charmy's out fruit-picking, and the obedient sheep take notes before trudging off to find their master while Grey follows Vanessa up the stairs with her sleeping light.

Later, when his wounds have been bandaged and he's too weak to push away the spoonfuls of soup Charmy forces into his mouth, Grey realizes that there's a cosmic joke to this. She's finally on her own, _finally_ has a place in the world, and she _still_ can't reveal her true face, can't hold her light while feeding him soup because her hands are too big, and because her face is so ugly, because she can't bear to show anyone the real her, the weak little woman who had to be saved by a boy and his little sister because she's been too weak to protect herself.

“What's your name?” Charmy asks after feeding her light the last spoonful of soup.

Vanessa sits next to Grey, still and silent, as befitting a witch. They wait in anticipation for his answer. She already knows her light's name, of course, she will never forget it, but he's never introduced himself before. She wants to hear his name from his lips.

“What's it to you?” He snaps at Charmy, and Charmy doesn't take shit from _anyone_ , not even the young man who'd just had part of his asshole stitched back up and two bones reset. She whacks them with her spoon, and he balks before grumbling underneath his breath.

“Name!” Charmy orders.

“Fine! It's Gauche! Stop hitting me!”

Charmy whacks him again, but this time, it's a playful smack that has him blushing fiercely. Grey hears Vanessa's lovely laughter filter throughout the room. She's calmer now, not yet at ease because they've never had someone with this kind of trauma walk into their base, someone who will need special care, but she's placid enough that she will let Gauche be himself while she devises next steps in her head since Captain Yami and Finral are still away at the capital squaring his release papers.

Gauche clears his throat before speaking next. “I have to call my sister now.”

“Oh?” Vanessa starts, “and how do you plan to do that?”

And there's that tell-tale smirk, the glint in his eyes that tells Grey that he will always come out on top. He's unlike others she's met. His ego isn't based on pride; it's based on love. He loves the little girl more than anything else, and would rather risk a life behind bars rather than let her go hungry.

He summons a mirror, and before Charmy can finish gasping, the little girl named Marie is crying in the mirror, asking if her big brother is OK, if he is safe, and that she's sorry, so sorry that he got taken away because of her.

“Nonsense! My sweet Marie, you did nothing wrong! It's my fault for getting caught! Your big brother will never fall to scum like that ever again!”

He lives in exclamation points when speaking to the little girl. She's starting to cry less and laugh more, and that makes Grey's burden lessen, makes Vanessa laugh some more since this man has a purpose, will live for his little sister even if he doesn't live for himself.

“You're not gonna introduce us?” Vanessa teases.

Gauche's nose is bleeding and he's beaming, but the second he hears Vanessa's comment, his face falls. He growls at the woman clad in her bra and panties.

“BSHOOOOOOOOOOOOO,” Grey enunciates, because she wants to say hello to the little girl too, wants to make her light feel comfortable enough that he will not push them away, and the first step to gaining his trust is gaining little Marie's trust.

“Yeah, I wanna say hi too, la!” Charmy adds passionately.

“Are those your friends?” Marie asks softly, and Grey watches Gauche bite his lip.

“They're n-”

“Yes!” Vanessa finishes for him, and plops herself close enough to say hello to the little girl in the mirror, but not so close as to encroach on his personal space. The little girl sniffles and wipes away the wet tears on her face before giving Vanessa a little smile. Charmy is next, and maybe if Grey had the guts, she too would lumber over and wave to little Marie, but she's too big, too cowardly, too sha-

“And that's Grey right there,” Vanessa exclaims, pointing at her towering figure. There's awe in Marie's eyes, and maybe, just _maybe,_ it's not all a cosmic joke.

“BSHOOOOOOO,” Grey enunciates in response, and Marie starts laughing. The sounds are as clear as bells, and it has her light frozen in his bed, shocked that something like Grey could bring a smile to a small child's face.

“Well, it was VERY nice to meet you, Marie,” Vanessa says finally. “It's time for your brother to get some rest now, so how about you tell him good night, and we'll tuck him into bed afterwards? How does that sound?”

The little girl gives Vanessa a determined nod while her light is cussing and telling them to stop filling his sister's head with lies, but Marie has as much of a temper as her big brother, and scolds him while Vanessa and Charmy repress their laughter. After she bids him goodnight, Vanessa keeps to her word, and orders her light to sleep.

“BSHOOOOOO,” Grey enunciates and Vanessa gets her, Charmy gets her too, and these are her friends, her _family_.

“Grey will watch over you while you sleep, so you can rest easy,” Vanessa tells him.

“You expect me to feel safe with a fucking monster in my bedroom?” Her light snarls back. There's rage, but there's also fear.

“He'll protect you,” Charmy interjects, “trust us, Gauche! Trust Grey!”

He doesn't answer, just flips over to his side and grumbles into his sheets. Grey stays where she is while Charmy and Vanessa gather the bowls and glasses before leaving them.

“If you touch me, I'll kill you,” her light tells her once their footsteps have retreated. “I swear, I'll rip your fucking throat out,” he promises her.

“BSHOOOOOOOOOOOOO,” she responds, because she doesn't doubt it.

Her light doesn't fall asleep that night until the early hours of morning when he can no longer control his body. He doesn't sleep well for weeks afterwards. He's abrasive, and won't see the medic regularly unless he's supervised, and won't let anyone touch him on pain of death. He's broken, and hurt, and Grey is always there, always watching.

“Grey?” Charmy asks one evening while her light works on a doll for his little sister. “Do you think he'll trust us eventually?”

“BSHOOOOOOO,” Grey enunciates, and Charmy nods because she understands her, because Grey believes it. Her light will trust them. He will come to understand that he's not alone, just like Grey once realized she isn't alone.

“Keep an eye on him, la,” Charmy finishes before hopping off her stool and heading into the kitchen.

“BSHOOOOOOOO,” Grey grunts.

And she will – until she breathes her last breath.


End file.
